Baltimore’s blemishes began to show even before the Browns spent half a game shutting up M&T Bank Stadium.

The Ravens’ warts glowed a neon purple in the second half of the 2013 season opener at Denver. They were outscored 35-10 in two telling quarters.

Suffice it to say Brandon Weeden is easier prey for any defense than Peyton Manning, but it took long enough for the Ravens to subdue the Cleveland passer in Game 2.

At halftime of Baltimore’s home opener, on a day of celebrating the Super Bowl win from seven months earlier, Weeden’s team led Joe Flacco’s 174 yards to 122. The Ravens were scoreless. The crowd was speechless.

Weeden is yesterday’s quarterback. October is blowing by, and the Ravens are ruffled by a cold wind. They have nested in their bye week, which came after a loss to the struggling Steelers.

The Ravens are breathing, at 3-4, but they have lost three of their last four games.

Their wins have come against the Browns, Bills and Texans, teams with a combined 8-15 record this year.

There was no shame in losing the opener to Peyton Manning, but the next time the Ravens went on the road, they lost to Buffalo and its rookie quarterback, E.J. Manuel.

With a 3-5 record, the Browns are in no position to crow, but, given a strong second half at Kansas City, they think they are in position to beat Baltimore.

“This is a division game, which magnifies it that much more,” Browns head coach Rob Chudzsinki said. “They’re coming off a bye, so obviously they’re going to have a wrinkle or two.”

General manager Ozzie Newsome came away from the Super Bowl with a conundrum. How could he reward potential free agent Flacco without fracturing the salary cap?

He couldn’t. He chose to give Flacco a $120.6M contract which at the time was the richest ever given to a quarterback.

The forces of doom came to a head on Sept. 29, when Flacco was sacked four times and threw five interceptions in a loss at Buffalo.

Two days later, Newsome made a trade aimed at allowing Flacco to live to be 30. He sent Round 4 and Round 5 draft picks in 2014 to Jacksonville in exchange for Eugene Monroe, a former Round 1 pick who never lived up to his draft status.

Monroe has replaced aging Bryant McKinnie, who has been shipped to the Dolphins. However, in Monroe’s first start, Flacco got sacked five times in a 19-17 home loss to Green Bay.

Page 2 of 3 - A week later, the Ravens lost at Pittsburgh, sending them into the bye week flustered.

Almost inexplicably, Harbaugh found a way last season. His 2012 team went 1-4 in December, limping into the postseason at 10-6, but then it beat the Colts, Broncos, Patriots and 49ers.

The roster looked a lot different then. What worked then can’t work now simply because so many of the players are different.

“We’ve got to run the ball and we need to stop the run,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve got to get turnovers. We need to not turn the ball over. We need to protect the quarterback. We need to get sacks.

“We need to score in the red zone. We need to continue to stop people from scoring in the red zone. We need to get big plays. We need to stop people from having big plays.”

The biggest play coming out of the bye was to get running back help for Ray Rice. Former Akron Garfield-Ohio State star Beanie Wells was brought in for a tryout; the Ravens wound up signing ex-Bengal Bernard Scott.

In the Pittsburgh game, backs Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce averaged 2.76 yards on 21 carries. The alarming part: That is normal for 2013. Rice has run 86 times for 242 yards (2.81 average). Pierce has run 79 times for 219 yards (2.77).

Opponents have outgained the Ravens in rushing yards 730-518.

One thing the Ravens still have going for them is Flacco’s connection with Torrey Smith. Smith is averaging 20.3 yards on 31 catches. He caught seven passes for 85 yards in the Sept. 15 game against Cleveland. Overall, the passing game has suffered with Boldin gone and tight end Dennis Pitta recovering from a hip injury.

The defense has received eight sacks from 31-year-old Terrelle Suggs and 5.5 sacks from free agency pick-up Elvis Dumervil.

Five of Baltimore’s 25 sacks came against Weeden in the Cleveland game. The Ravens have only four interceptions, none of which came against the Browns.

Baltimore is the first defending Super Bowl champion to have a losing record in the following season’s first seven games since the 2006 Steelers.

The Baltimore series is getting to be a terrible embarrassment for the Browns, who have lost 11 straight games to the team that used to be the Browns.

Beating Baltimore, which can be had, could do wonders for the Browns’ season.